News and Insight for Sales Leaders by Gerhard Gschwandtner

01/04/2017

The New Sales Development Model and Why You Need It

Today’s post is by Jon Miller, CEO and Co-founder of Engagio, an account-based platform that orchestrates outbound interactions across departments and channels. Previously, Jon was a co-founder at Marketo (Nasdaq:MKTO), a leader in marketing automation.

Account Based Sales Development (ABSD) is a huge step forward for the world of sales development. It’s much more sophisticated and effective than “hitting the phones” or blasting out emails. However, it isn’t always the answer for every B2B company or every challenge.

So, what exactly is Account Based Sales Development?

ABSD is a coordinated strategy that combines personalized, multi-channel, multi-threaded, outbound activities to create high-value opportunities in new and existing customers.

How do you decide whether ABSD is the right strategy for your business?

If the following are true for your business, ABSD is probably your best bet.

When big deals matter

If big deals are 10-20 times bigger than average deals, ABSD is a no-brainer. These big deals don’t just justify the effort; they demand it. With longer sales cycles, more complex buying committees, and the need for a consultative sales process, bigger deals require a different strategy.

“There’s still a place for what we call greenfield [not account based] sales development. If you can sell to a broad range of customers, it can still make sense. But, as soon as you’ve got a focused ideal customer profile, account based is the way to go.” - Craig Rosenberg, co-founder and chief analyst, TOPO

When your deal sizes are six figures

ABSD is required for $100k-plus deals. And it’s a really good idea for $50k-100k deals. Deals below $20k are probably too small.

According to Craig on the Funnelholic blog: “Today’s sales development teams must be smarter and more targeted in their outreach to produce the same amount of pipeline - particularly in the Enterprise.”

When you need sales efficiency

Account Based Everything requires a new look at metrics. While leads, opportunities, pipeline, and revenue are important and even necessary metrics, they are not sufficient to measure account-based strategies. This is a fundamentally different approach that requires fundamentally different metrics.

What has changed?

This is much different from traditional demand gen and sales development. Today, for most B2B companies, sophisticated measurement of customer acquisition costs and lifetime value economics runs the show. For enterprise organizations, big deals are worth 10-20 times more than the average deal size. These are company-making deals and they’re worth building a sales-and-marketing strategy around. If you haven't already, check out the Clear and Complete Guide to Account Based Sales Development. ABSD is a huge step from the original telesales “boiler rooms”:

It’s multi-channel – maximizing reach by using all channels, not massive spamming campaigns

It’s integrated – a coordinated effort supported by marketing – not another silo

It’s patient – with less emphasis on short-term calls to action such as demos and more on high-value engagements such as meetings to share insights or trends

TOPO Research, one of the pioneers of account-based thinking and the new sales development discipline, puts it this way: “Unlike ‘batch and blast’ outbound sales development - in which SDRs send large volumes of template-based messages - Account Based Sales Development is personalized to the account and person receiving the message.”

According to their 2016 benchmark study,

45 percent of sales development teams today are already account based (even if not fully evolved)

27 percent are partially account based

28 percent are “greenfield” (reaching out to the whole market)

Three years ago, these numbers would have been reversed.

“Account Based Sales Development is today’s most effective account-based tactic. Rather than rely on the high-volume process of outbound prospecting, organizations now strategically define a smaller, more targeted set of accounts and run personalized buyer-centric campaigns against those accounts.” - TOPO

ABSD is the new sales development. It’s more sophisticated and effective than “hitting the phones” or blasting out emails. It never sits back and waits for opportunities; it goes out and creates them. It creates big deals that fuel hyper-growth. It’s just as powerful for customer success as it is for acquisition. It targets the entire buying team as a team, not as isolated individuals. It’s built on relevance and value for each individual on the team, and it’s all about the orchestration between marketing, sales development, and sales.